THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS

It's a completely immersive and surprisingly funny opening act that laughs at its own iconic status, as well as the preposterous notion of producing a sequel after all these years. It's a fascinating stance to take, and even more surprising considering the ticks of approval the corporate fatcats must have sanctioned. Wachowski expressively points the finger at those trying to appropriate a body of work that doesn't belong to them. It's a genuinely brilliant and refreshing take on Hollywood sequels, and maybe something that other franchises could learn from in the years to come.

Unfortunately, after this first act, once audiences will already be full of glee and adrenaline, everything becomes one, big, sloppy mess.

It's too easy to say this film is either entirely good or bad - or more accurately, it's too difficult to say. Should I review this film for what it presents to me on screen, or how it made me feel while watching it?

What made the original franchise so compelling and timeless is sorely lacking in this latest edition. Regardless of how many times you watch 'The Matrix', you will always leave with the sense of dread that you might not really exist, and your subconscious is being coded by machines. However, with this new iteration, it feels small and specifically designed for Neo, as though he was in his own little version of it. Without that attached feeling, the stakes of Neo's latest quest just don't have the same impetus, and I found myself not caring one way or the other what happened. This might be partly to do with how the trilogy ended, meaning that unless the scope and scale were going to be matched, I didn't find the reason for its existence.

More to that point, I'm not convinced that what audiences really wanted in revisiting this world was Neo and Trinity, so perhaps we could have re-entered the Matrix with completely new faces and characters. Jessica Henwick's ('Love and Monsters') Bug and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's ('Candyman') version of Morpheus bring much-needed fresh energy, but they aren't given the time or respect to have fleshed out characters. Although, I have to take this opportunity to highlight the magnificent wardrobe donned by Adbul-Mateen II, displaying a serious set of costume changes. I understand making Neo and Trinity front and centre for obvious reasons, and their position there makes for quite a romantic film, but it sometimes felt more like expensive fan fiction.

I don't want to discuss what I would have preferred to see, because that's not my job. What I am here to say is that 'The Matrix Resurrections' is so caught up in its past and its reason to exist that it ends up not knowing what it wants to be. The action is decent and well-choreographed - whilst not holding a flame to any of the predecessors - but it just gets lost in the plot. It's not a complicated story, nor a boring one, but it's completely lacking in the scale we have come to expect from such a visionary director, so you start to ask yourself why people are even fighting.

'The Matrix Resurrections' sits somewhere between relying on old faces, and extracting something from new ones. There are projections of the original trilogy in certain scenes which are used as both exposition reminders, and friendly nods - and I'm not sure you can have it both ways. It in no way felt like returning to the same world - which I certainly admire - but then with all this going on in the foreground, is Wachowski driving the nostalgia, respecting it, or running from it? It tries to make fun of the concept while also leaning into it, so it's difficult as an audience member with a relationship to the original to ascertain if I'm watching this to feel what I felt 15 years ago, or am I looking for something new?

So much of me wants to give 'The Matrix Resurrections' more than three stars, because it's so bold and nothing like what blockbusters are these days - but I can't. Likewise, part of me wants to give this less than three stars because, ultimately, I left the cinema feeling disappointed and maybe even worse, void of glee - but I can't do that either. Therefore, three stars feels about right. It's a cautious recommendation, but a recommendation nonetheless. It's colourful, it's ambitious, we get to see Neo and Trinity again, but it also lacks any real spark or reason to exist.

I sincerely hope and expect Wachowski to continue making interesting and paradigm-shifting art, but perhaps it's best to lay this franchise to rest, as Neo himself once did.